Anthony Jones carried on the corrupt scheme: Stephanie Grace

As spectactular as Greg Meffert's implosion has been, it's worth remembering that the corruption of former Mayor Ray Nagin's technology operations didn't end with him. Another top City Hall staffer, one who started out as Meffert's subordinate and eventually filled his high-level shoes, has admitted accepting $22,000 in bribes from subcontractor Mark St. Pierre.

Chris Granger / The Times-PicayuneAnthony Jones

Like Meffert before him, Anthony Jones testified this week against his onetime patron, and in the process fleshed out the details of his own fall from grace.

We learned, for example, that St. Pierre's concerns over Jones' loyalty prompted him to start funneling Jones $2,000 a month -- for consulting, on paper, although no such work was done. The payments were concealed using a subcontractor on another tech contract, who was, not-so-coincidentally, also an employee of St. Pierre's various companies. Brian Smith testified that St. Pierre instructed him to write checks to Jones, which St. Pierre himself would deliver. Smith said he followed St. Pierre's instructions to disguise these payments and many others, including to Nagin's reelection campaign, because "I wanted to be a team player and to please him," Smith said.

Jones confirmed that account and said the handoffs happened in St. Pierre's city-paid Poydras Street office or on the corner outside. He and Smith never met, both said.

We also learned exactly what Jones did to earn his keep.

Jones testified that St. Pierre gave him a pair of very specific assignments. He was supposed to make sure St. Pierre's people, who in 2005 outnumbered city tech employees 40-15, were kept on. And Jones was supposed to expedite city payments -- in general notoriously slow -- for that work.

"He knew I could move invoices from the bottom of the pile to the top of the pile," Jones said.

We learned that Jones got a lot more than just the money specified in his bribery plea, from both St. Pierre and another vendor. He said he used to drink and dine with St. Pierre at upscale spots such as Emeril's, Tommy's and Loa and that St. Pierre would pick up the tab. He also testified that vendor Aaron Bennett took Jones out for lunch, dinner and drinks, fronted him money to gamble at Harrah's and gave him some cuff links. Bennett is the owner of the company that replaced lead vendor Ciber Inc., through which St. Pierre's firm got its main city work.

Bennett has not been charged with a crime, but his name came up earlier in the trial in testimony over the private jet he hired to take Nagin and his wife, along with Meffert, to Chicago to watch the Saints play in the NFC championship in 2007. It was during that trip that Nagin decided to boot Ciber in favor of Bennett's firm, Benetech.

We learned the circumstances under which the payments from St. Pierre to Jones stopped. It happened in 2007, when, amid a flurry of bad press, Chief Administrative Officer Brenda Hatfield decided the no-bid, month-to-month arrangement that St. Pierre had so expertly exploited was improper and ordered the city work put out to bid through the RFP process.

One thing we didn't learn was how Jones landed in desperate financial straits.

"I needed the money," was about all he had to say about that. "It was wrong."

When St. Pierre attorney Eddie Castaing asked about Jones' embellishment of his educational credentials, Jones he said he'd been truthful on his application. Castaing then noted that media storm over the issue led to his demotion from Meffert's old $160,000 job as tech chief back to his original $86,000 post as Management Information Services director. Jones insisted he was always meant to fill the more senior job temporarily.

Jones also denied that he only reimbursed Ciber for a trip the company had paid for after it became public and caused still more bad press.

"That is not correct," Jones claimed. He said he'd already sent a reimbursement check beforehand, but that it just "didn't clear."